"...winter's moving in." from a song by Tom Rush

NNew scanner art. Some oak leaves and new acorns ready for next spring. A buddy on Facebook was quoting this old song in his posts and I had an "aha" moment of what to call this! Enjoy!

Thistle

New scanner art. Original thistle is about 1 inch. Didn't expect to see one in the garden this late in the year, but had fun with this!

Boo!!!

Daniel has been hard at work on our new living room. The old one (beneath all the sheetrock and several layers) was built in 1897 or so. So when he started pulling off layers, one layer led to another until I could see him outside! A new window is going in to the right of this!

Bookmark

Here's one side of the bookmark! What fun I had adding the ribbon, stars and the tiny ribbon flower. Good for the soul. The lady at the P.O. loved it!

Envelope Art

Just sent this out! It's a bookmark inside of a vellum envelope (so you can see right through the envelope). Hope me fried likes it!

Abbie and Cleopatra

Don't know who like baby cereal better! Cleo gets to lick it off Abbie's face when she's done eating and Abbie just laughs and laughs!

Abrielle is now 5 months old-almost 6!!!

What a cute granddaughter I have, I must say! She could easily be the new Gerber Baby!

Fall Fuzzies poster

Fall Fuzzies

Here's my new scanner art for today, a collection of gone to seed plant parts that all have some fuzzies here and there. Hope you enjoy!

Fall Fuzzies close-up

Pine Cone Tree

And my first scanner art on my new scanner! Ta-da! I am going to have these blown up poster size so you will see all the detail and more that you see in the close-ups.

Close-up of pine cone petals

Acorn caps

Here's a close-up of some acorn caps from my new "Pine Cone Tree".

Close-up of "The Dance"

The Dance

New scanner art on my old scanner. I'm retiring this scanner and just bought a new Epsom V770/750 so I'm excited to try it out. I will be offering posters and prints of my scanner art once I get time to upload them on Etsy. I'll keep you posted. This is fun, but work has been so busy, I can't seem to get to it. Yes, I am blessed with too much work at times and at other times it's dead around here. That's the life of any graphic designer! I'm waiting on that lull!!!! Enjoy!

Mail Art from Melissa Sabin

I loved Melissa's mail art on her site http://redtape.typepad.com/ and commented that I would love to get some mail art from her. She contacted me and said she would send me some! I was so excited.

A couple weeks later I met the mailman at the mailbox and lo and behold, he handed me a stack of bills with this colorful, delightful piece of art tucked in there. Of course, It was the only thing I wanted to look at! I ripped open the plastic sleeve to take a closer look. It was so awesome. I couldn't bring myself to open it! I knew there was something inside, but the envelope was so beautiful, I didn't want to open it.

So I propped it up on my computer screen like a kid looking at a beautifully wrapped Christmas gift until I couldn't stand it any longer. After at least a half an hour, I grabbed some scissors and carefully trimmed off 1/32 of an inch off one end so I wouldn't ruin what was inside or ruin the back of the envelope, and discovered a great card inside. But it was the envelope I really was intrigued with. How can something be so intriguing that I didn't even want to open it? It's never happened to me before! It was like a tiny bit of magic in my day.

Check out her website and enjoy her mail art. She's a genius who brought such fun and intrigue into my home this week. I plan to return the favor and my only hope is she doesn't want t rip the envelope open immediately! LOL!

Cleopatra loves tennis balls

The tennis ball never has a chance to escape those jaws. Cleo is in heaven playing, tracking, dancing with me, or just taking a walk! She loves life and we love her!

Cleopatra

My Cleopatra looks intelligent, even from the back, don't you think???? LOL?

Abrielle

My little granddaughter is already 5 months old and gorgeous as her sisters! I went to breakfast with my daughter and her this morning and here she is trying a new cereal. Isn't she a doll?????

Ceiling is coming along!

My husband is a genius! I love my new ceiling. Now he's working on the electrical. So many choices in lighting!!!!! Of course, that's my job!

Draw your hand

This was fun!

Rotator Cuff Surgery

I'm going to Physical Therapy 3 times a week and doing some swimming to help it all heal and it seems to be getting better. I had frozen shoulder once and that was far worse, since PT didn't help it at all and it last over a year! So keep all your joints moving as much as you can while you are sitting there at your computer! Take time to stretch your arms over your head every 20 minutes or so. It's hard for us who sit at the computer day after day to do our work, or at a drawing table. Same thing. Stretch!

While I have been going through this, my husband has been tearing down the ceiling and walls of our living room. We are going to keep the beams exposed on the ceiling, and put wainscotting in between them. Here's a before image. I'll keep adding images as he goes along. He's already added 2 new windows and sanded the beams (not in this photo! Just wanted to share my sweeties talents!

Red Leaf Lettuce

My second experiment with scanner photography. Even more fun! After I scanned my subject, I ate it! Yum. Organic!!!

Image Scanning- Stella D'oro flower

I have been playing around with scanning flowers right on my scanner bed and here is my first attempt. You leave the scanner back open and the background of your image will be black and you won't smoosh the flower! This one I scanned at 2400 dpi and it came out pretty cool for a first attempt. I realized all the tiny flaws I could see once in Photoshop and cleaned those all up, and now I want a new, better scanner. Once framed, the image looks like you actually pinned up a real flower into a shadowbox. Way cool! I want to do more. How you enjoy.

surgery

Surgery is over and I'm feeling a bit groggy. Thanks for all the well wishes. My brother's graduation is tonight so I'm sure he'll call at some point to let me know how he liked the gift. We have always been very close. I have 4 brothers and a sister so it's a big family! Hope I can get clear eyed enough to do some sketching in the next few days!

My brother's Mike's graduation

My little brother Mike, is graduating from nursing school on Thursday so I made him a gift. It's a collage of old images, and some metal emphera and some ribbon. On the bottom is some sea glass, coral, and some small shells. Here's the full piece and a close up. Hope he likes it!

I'm having rotator cuff surgery tomorrow so I may not be able to make it to the graduation. That's sucks big time!!!!

close up of sparrow

As you can see, I need to do some more work on the feathers! Any hints at how to get them better would be appreciated!
Revelle

Sparrow for Abbie

Here's a new painting I'm working on for my granddaughter Abbie. It's not quite finished but I wanted to share it. I've gone from not thinking I could draw a bird, to actually painting one in oils! All thanks to the kind inspiration of people on this site.
Revelle

Waiting by the stream

My husband was taking our dog, Cleo, for a swim so I did a quick sketch of the roadside fence (mighty old fence!) while I waited for them to finish. I've been gone for a while. Cat bit me really bad and I had to go to the hospital for IV antibiotics 5 days in a row. I've been missing everyone and I'm glad to be back.
Revelle

To Kill a Mockingbird

Here's my interpretation of Scout in "To Kill a Mockingbird". Illustrator and Photoshop.

My first Zentangle

I think! Are their rules for Zentangles?

Something that makes me smile!

Bouncy Jack Russell Terriers!!!! This one was on the picnic table at the dog park and I did a fast sketch.

Pajama Silk Jama Man and Pajama Rocker

I'm thinking this is going to be a fun series, maybe licensable!

Pajama Man and Pajama Mama meet PJ Father-in-Law

Pajama Man has been on vacation with his new wife, Pajama Mama, in sunny Florida, meeting his father-in-law. Thankfully, he is also a pajama lover!
Revelle

A bunny for Abrielle

I found a little bunny picture and transformed it into this small painting for my new Granddaughter Abby. My daughter gave me a swatch of the wallpaper border and I matched the design to it. Hope she likes it! Now I have to paint 3 more, one with each letter of her name. The letters "Abby" also spell "Baby", so I decided to switch around the images and letters so she could have fun figuring out which letter was which. The "B" painting will have something on it like an "Armidillo" and have a "B" on it, etc.

Inside the car

Here's the sketch I made while my speed demon husband was driving 80 miles an hour. Very wobbly! But fun to try to draw and drive at the same time.

Destiny makes her First Holy Communion

My granddaughter, Destiny, made her First Hold Communion last Saturday, so we drove to NY Saturday and drove back on Sunday. Her other grandparents had the party at their house in LaGrangeville which is in the middle of nowhere. We got lost a little bit, but it is a beautiful state. I loved seeing the lilacs in bloom already, where they are just starting to open here. I drew the inside of the car as my husband was cruising along at 80 miles an hour, but my sketchbok is in his car. I'll have to post the wobbly sketch when he gets home. Lots f detail in a dashboard!! In the meantime, here's the lovely Destiny! I make great looking grandchildren, don't I????
LOL!!!

Just updated my zazzle page with new coffee mugs!

http://www.zazzle.com/the_coffee_lady
Check them out!

Abby's first smirk!

Had to share!!!!
Revelle

Abby

Sucking on her blanky already!

Abrielle born 5:30 April 21, 2009

Heres my new granddaughter! Mom and baby doing fine! What a miracle she is. Sweet and calm. Looks like both of her sisters!
Revelle

Erin and me (Abby hiding inside!!!)

Here she is with me, ready to pop at her baby shower!

Side view just for Carolyn!

Sorry they are a bit fuzzy, the wind wouldn't stop blowing!

Spring is on it's way

The crocus are up and almost gone past, so the tulips can't be far behind. The greens are up but the weather is stuck in the 40's and 50's and I'm getting impatient for the rest of my garden to start growing. We had a cold, long winter and I'm ready for some 70's!!!!

Happy first day of spring!

I created this for a greeting card and for sale as a print. Hope all of you have snow melting like crazy!!!!!
Revelle

France

Same client, but his one was for France.

Italy

Here's a piece I created for a client, on Italy. this was really fun. I created pen and ink sketches for each section, scanned them all in and arranged in Photoshop.

Bird is the word!

Here is the first sketch in my first Moleskine! Birds and more birds, in my weird style!
Revelle

An invite to my daughter's baby shower

Here's an invitation I designed for my daughter's baby shower coming up in March. She's having another little girl! I'm so psyched!
Revelle

Emily as a Fairy

A fun collage of my granddaughter, Emily, done in Photoshop.
Revelle

Thing a day

I have been trying to post on Thing-A-Day for days and keep getting errors so I give up. Here's one corner of the new bulletin board I made for my studio with some homosote board, fabric and ribbon and a staple gun. What fun this was! I'll be able to change the fabric when I get sick of it.
Revelle

Cleopatra

My Cleopatra loves the snow. She's really getting big! Her birthday is March 13, so she's almost one year old. We just love her!

Cleo investigating the smells of winter

Again, I was having problems on Thing-a-Day trying to upload. So here's my darling, Cleo, head down like a wolf, searching for the tiniest smell coming from below the snow. It's melted a great deal after 2 days in the fifties, and I'm really excited about that. I can actually see some of my plants in the garden around the mailbox where the snow has been shoveled.

I wonder, How many of you get your mail in a mailbox as opposed to brought to your door by the mailman? In Massachusetts, it was always a mailman right to the door, in New hampshire, everyone has a mailbox. How is it overseas?
Revelle

Threading the needle

Another rapid-o-graph pen and ink drawing on tracing paper. Trace is a pain to scan! All those crinkles!
Revelle

Thing a day Feb. 12

Transformed my switchplate art into a Valentine's Day greeting! I hope you are all with someone you love this Valentines Day! I know I am! Plus, it's my Anniversary!
Revelle

Amish boy and guinea pig

I did this sketch from a photo I found years ago. It's pencil and colored pencil followed up in Photoshop.
Revelle

Crow Sculpture by Tim Mullan

I purchased this great sculpture by Tim Mullan. I try to support my fellow artists when I see something I can't live without!
Revelle
http://www.thing-a-day.com/?author=227

In front of the TV Feb. 9, 2009

Here's a sketch I did of my daughter Erin, looking at me from the couch, the TV glaring behind her. She has beautiful eyes.
Revelle

Hobby Horses

My Feb 6th thing a day (I know I'm going to be really busy tomorrow!
Revelle
http://www.thing-a-day.com/?p=5135

Kangi Fish Dreams

Kangi was perched on the couch again, his favorite place when i won't let him on my lap, so I did another sketch of him for my day 5 TAD.
Revelle
http://www.thing-a-day.com/?p=5000

Dog lovers unite!

Here's my TAD for Feb. 2. A found photo I messed around with in Photoshop. I just love dogs if you can't tell!
Revelle
http://www.thing-a-day.com/?p=1911

Bird's nest. Feb 1, 2009 thing-a-day postings

I joined a web blog called thing-a-day, where we post something creative every day in February 2009. Check out their site to see everyone's listings. I will be also posting my listings here in case there is a problem with their site.
http://www.thing-a-day.com.

Dog and girl switch plate

Here's the second switch plate I made and I learned a good lesson. Looked great until I had to punch the holes for the screws to go into! I had made a template showing where the switch went, but not the screws. Now my doggie has a screwed up nose! Literally!

Cleopatra painted by Mark Adams

My sweet puppy, Cleopatra, was recently painted by the famous artist, Mark Adams (this is the painting). He had been looking for different breeds of dogs to paint, and I answered his call by providing him some photos of Cleo as a pup. She's a long-haired, East German, German Shepherd (very different from the Americanized Shepherd with the long, low back) and I think he did a delightful job! Check out his blog! http://www.markadamsstudio.blogspot.com/
Revelle

non-shiny (no flash on the camera!!!!

Cleopatra protecting her Armadillo

Here's my sweetie Cleo, protecting her favorite squeak toy. She finished her first heat and boy are we glad we got through that! Haven't decided if we will eventually breed her. We'll have her hips x-rayed when she is 2 and decide then. She's so smart, and has learned so much in 10 months! We love her to death! She can open her kennel door and get her toys all by herself now. We put a little clothe handle on it she can pull with her teeth.
Revelle

Kangi Collage

Here's a collage I created while waiting, and waiting for something to upload. Fun, fun, fun!

Elayne's Garden Organics

I have a friend Elayne who makes organic soaps and other organic products and I wanted to let you know how great they are. I designed her packaging for the soaps and just got to see the finished product! The boxes look as good as the soap smells and lathers! And, best of all, it's made with organic ingredients! I have very tender skin and get welts using that awful bio-engineered stuff they put in bathrooms everywhere these days, and this soap doesn't do that. Check out her website at www.elaynesgarden.com and tell her I sent you!

Blue pig on scratchboard

Here's a cute piglet I drew on scratchboard. Well, actually he was there all along, it being a reverse process like sculpture, I just removed everything that was not a pig from the scratchboard!

Winter is dragging on here in New England and I haven't been doing much drawing. Work has been busy, and I feel blessed that that is so, but I do love a couple days off now and then. With graphic design it's always feast or famine with the workload. Hope you all have been able to keep your jobs and keep busy!

Happy Holidays!

From my house to yours!

My Daniel

Here's an image I painted in Photoshop of my husband, Daniel, and this huge fish he caught. I wanted to focus the attention on his face and the boylike glee he was experiencing in the moment. I painted it using the Wacom Tablet. By the way, It's a 4 x 6 inch tablet, and Model # PTZ-431W. Comes with a mouse (why bother!) and a pen that you use to draw, paint, or whatever you want. Has pencil, pen, scratchboard, oils, gouache, oils, watercolor, airbrush, felt pens, crayons, and a zillion other possibilities you can create with no mess. I just love it when I'm sitting at the computer and don't have the energy to grab the oils and set everything up. It's so much fun.
Revelle

Portrait of a man

A lot of you have asked about the Wacom Tablet. Here's a drawing I did using it. It allows you to do layers, so I did the pen and ink part first and then added the painting underneath. Really easy, no mess, no paints purchased, and no messy ink on my fingers!
Revelle

Dad and his car

Here's a Photoshop illustration I created with an old photo of my Dad and his car.

Pajama Man 3

Here's a new Summer Pajama Man! Let me know which you like the best.
Revelle
http://revelleimagemaker.blogspot.com/

Kangi keeping warm

This is a sketch I did when the heat was off and one f my cats, Kangi, was on the couch arm, all curled up and trying to keep warm. Pen and ink and finished up in Photoshop with burn and dodge tools.
Revelle

Ice storm right after....

Here's another shot of the ice storm right after. My husband was driving around looking for a place we could get coffee after I was able to drag myself out of bed. We ended up traveling about 30 miles to find a place to get a coffee and some gasoline. This was last Friday morning-lost power Thursday night. It's Thursday again and we still have no power!
Revelle

Frozen Rhododendrum leaves

Wanted to share this chance photo my husband took. The covering of ice was just beginning to slip off as the day warmed up right after the ice storm. You can see the little veins in the ice shape. Cool!
Revelle

Cleopatra's first snow storm!

Here's Cleo in the snow in our front yard. We are still without power, so why not take a nice long walk in the snow. We got 3-5 inches, depending on where you step. She was so excited she kept running around biting the snow and doing flips! I was told by the electric company that we should have our electricity back by midnight tonight, and I hope that's true. This is getting old! Thank goodness, Cleo doesn't seem to mind! We are expecting another foot of snow on Friday!. Hope it doesn't break down any more trees and wires!

Polar Bear Christmas

Here's a fun project I created in Painter and Photoshop, actually "painting" on the strokes on the computer Wacom Tablet and an electronic pen. If you've never tried it, you should! It has thousands of tools from chaulk to ink to pencil and oils, and you can adjust the pressure, size and color for each tool. I'll be using it for prints and cards. I also think I'll add it to my Etsy shop if any of you know someone who loves polar bears, send them my way!
Revelle
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5513150

Chunky Pajama Man and Dog

Here's my newest Pajama Man. This one is on kid's finger paint paper, in pencil and watercolor pencils.

American Tree Sparrow

Okay. I had convinced myself I could not draw a bird, but I sat down with a photo of one (didn't have a live one!) and gave it a try and voila! I actually can draw a bird! On to bigger and better birds! So if you are convinced you can't draw something, don't waste time like I did...try it again!
Revelle

Reclining Nude figure drawing class

pen and ink, chaulk, Photoshop.

Seated nude figure drawing class

Pen and ink on paper, 15 minute sketch.

Figure drawing sketch

Charcol 15 second sketch. Quick and fun!

Kristian

When my son was small he had a yellow parakeet. He would let it climb onto his finger and then the bird would crawl up and sit quietly on his shoulder. Only decent bird I ever drew (and that was from the back!)
Revelle

Exclamation Point

My Exclamation Point turned into a sort of band of flying thought balloons! Fun pencil sketch on illustration board.

Figure drawing class

Did this in figure drawing class, with conte crayon.

Pajama Man 2

Here's a quick sketch I did the other night in pen and ink. This morning I scribbled in some prismacolor. At least I'm sketching!!!!

Veterans Day in US

Thank you to all the veterans of all the wars that have helped protect the US during wartime, especially my Dad, Frank Taillon, who was shot in GuadalCanal during WW II and who received a purple heart. Don't forget to say thank you to your loved ones!
Revelle

Big brother's birthday

I've been collecting stuff for making some collages for a while now, and decided to make one for my brother's birthday. Check it out. It's mounted on board, and I had my husband drill small holes to hold the owl hanger. It has little holes in the back of the owl to hold the ribbon. I had a ball doing this and now I want to make more! Enjoy. He was about 10 I guess when this photo was taken at our camp.
Revelle

rolodex

I was waiting (not so patiently) for some updates to load on my new computer, so I decided to do a quick sketch of my rolodex. I have fun using a large sharpie pen on kids finger painting paper because it is so slick the pen just flies over it. Try it sometime!
Revelle

Happy Halloween 2008

Cleopatra is the sweetest, long haired German Shepherd, but when my husband got this shot of her trying to catch a mouthful of leaves, I knew it was the perfect Halloween shot! Watch those piles of leaves tonight...you never know when you're going to step on a Devil Dog!!! Boo!
Revelle

the pears have been waiting patiently for me!

Here's a quick sketch of my pears before I finally get down to eating them. They've been very patient, don't you think?
Revelle

Cleopatra

I though I would post a photo of my puppy, Cleopatra. She's a long-haired German Shepherd, East German heritage, not American (with that too low sloping back). She's an angel and I really need to do a painting of her for my husband for Christmas. I'll post it after I'm done. She's 7 months old and a sweetheart, marvel of a dog. I just finished walking her and it's freezing outside! It won't be long before the snow starts. Happy Fall to everyone and keep drawing!
Revelle

Angus

I painted this yesterday for my Dad's 90th birthday, coming up this month. His old black lab mix, Angus, passed away a few months ago and I thought he'd enjoy a painting of him. I couldn't find an actual photo of him but did a search on the web of photos of old black labs and with some input from my brother as to what he actually looked like, put together this painting. My Dad lives in Florida and me in New Hampshire, so I only have vague recollections of Angus. Plus I hate to fly so I haven't been down there for a while. My dad comes up here to visit every summer, but the dog stays down there. A notice to everyone...take lots of pictures of your pets!!!!!! Some day you may want a portrait of them.

Valentine's Day

Here's a little cartoon I used to wish my clients a Happy Valentine's Day. I love using many different styles to do illustrations.

Love Fish

Here's another "Heart" shaped prismacolor image. That's my antique trunk!

Strawberries

I work in prismacolor sometimes, a type of colored pencils. Here's one of my favorites.

Tiger

I also love to draw in pencil. Here's a wonderful tiger I drew on illustration board.

Tree in winter

Here's a photo I took of a tree from the town next to mine. It's just gorgeous without it's leaves,

Erin

Here's a drawing I did of my daughter, Erin.

portraits

I can do portraits like this one, if you have a photo you'd like drawn.

White Hair

Here's a new oil painting I just call "White Hair". I'm loving oil painting again. I found a new medium recipe that uses stand oil and it gives the images a great sheen.

Victorian house

Here's an image i created from a shot I took last fall. Love the funky colors!

Funky Beach Cottage

Here's a funky image i created from a photo I took in Maine on that same vacation.

Pajama Man

I did a rough sketch on the beach in Maine one afternoon, and afterwards, created this image I call "Pajama Man", in oils. Kinda reminds me of my sweetie!

Caelie

Here's another little girl I created a collage out of. I love finding old, unidentified images and creating collages from them in Photoshop.

Destiny's bad day

And here's my third grand daughter's bad day! got a theme going here!

Kaitlin's bad day

Here's a collage I created of my grand daughter's bad day.

Emily's Bad Day

Here's another image I created of her sister's bad day!

I've been busy!

I haven't been here in a while. too much design work! I have started to paint in oils again and here is my first attempt. I set these pears up on my kitchen table and used a spotlight. I need more practice, huh?

Close up of image

Here's a close-up of the boy's face and wings.

Come to the edge

Here's another image I created in Photoshop.

July is getting hot so cool off!

Here's an image I created on global warming. I'd love some feedback. Stay cool!

Happy Spring

A beautiful spring morning to start a blog. I'm an illustrator/designer/artist, and I'll be sharing my work and my days with you. Hope to hear back from you. You can check out my original website (in dire need of updating) at http://www.revelletaillon.com.

I've worked in everything from pencil to oils to Photoshop and I will be posting images of all types for you to see and comment on. I'd love to hear from others who share my passion for creating or collecting artwork. Talk to you soon!
Revelle